THE EUROPEAN Commission has initiated legal action against Hungary over its new constitution, raising the stakes in a battle with prime minister Viktor Orban over the independence of the country’s central bank, judiciary and data protection body.
The commission’s intervention follows weeks of tension with the Orban administration, which has spurned repeated requests to repeal a series of measures deemed to violate European law.
The prime minister claims he is merely modernising the Hungarian state and clearing out the final remnants of its communist past, but his many critics accuse him of an unsavoury power grab.
“We hoped that the Hungarian authorities would make the changes necessary to guarantee respect of EU law. This has not been the case so far, therefore we have decided to begin infringement proceedings,” said European Commission chief José Manuel Barroso.
“Hungary is a key member of the European family. We do not want the shadow of doubt on respect for democratic principles and values to remain over the country any longer.”
The commission said it had identified “several breaches of primary law” in relation to the central bank, including a violation of the requirement to guarantee its independence. New measures, said the commission, offered the government the possibility of influencing the bank from the inside.
On the judiciary, it found fault with the reduction of the mandatory retirement age for judges and prosecutors to 62 from 70. This results in the compulsory retirement of some 274 judges, including supreme court judges. It also questioned why one official should have exclusive responsibility for the appointment of all judges.
On the data protection body, the commission said the new office was independent of government as required under law and it questioned why the term of the previous commissioner was brought to an end prematurely.
Mr Orban’s reluctance to yield is stoking acrimony with other member states ahead of an EU summit on January 30th. Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg will try to raise the constitution at a pre-summit meeting next week of foreign and European ministers. Belgian foreign minister Didier Reynders said the case raised the question of whether European governments should be empowered to sanction other member states over “political” measures as is it for breaches of EU budget rules.
“It’s possible to do that for the budget but not to organise the same process for political evolutions,” he said in Brussels.
Mr Orban faces a grilling from MEPs today at a hearing in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The prime minister is due to meet Mr Barroso next Tuesday.
His government insisted it was determined to resolve the dispute, saying it believed the independence of central bank, judiciary and data protection was extremely important.
Peter Gyorkos, Hungary’s ambassador to the EU, insisted that disagreement was not a disaster for relations between Budapest and Brussels, but also warned that Hungary might not give way to the EU on every issue.
“Even the most impartial and most correct partners can get into dispute. But please let’s not exclude that in certain cases we will say ‘Sorry, European Commission, we don’t agree’.”
With financial markets nervous about the fate of Budapest’s request for emergency EU-International Monetary Fund aid, analysts warned of the dangers posed by a prolonged impasse between Hungary and Brussels.
“The most negative reaction would be if the government starts disputing the procedure, which in turn could seriously delay the start of the official talks regarding external financial assistance,” Unicredit bank said.
Hungarian chief negotiator with the IMF, Tamas Fellegi, will meet on Friday with EU economic commissioner Olli Rehn, who last week rejected the Orban administration’s 2012 budget.